The nail polish brand is now more accessible than ever, so do we still want it?

Do you remember the first bottle of Essie nail polish you ever bought? We remember ours like it was yesterday. It was years ago (circa mid 90s'), when you could only find Essie at salons and the odd beauty supply store like Trade Secrets. The color we were hunting for? Forever Young (not to be confused with current color Forever Yummy), a creamy, saturated, vampy red that has since been discontinued.

At that time, Essie polishes were like these little rare treasures, a decadent indulgence that signified only one thing: this little badge of style made you a certified nail pirate who is independent enough to decide to spend ten bucks on a single color and resourceful enough to track it down at this random beauty supply store in _____ (insert random suburb here). Snagging that coveted new shade provided a rush like no other and we couldn't wait to get home and ceremoniously manicure our nails with the new bounty.

In 2010, the brand was bought by beauty behemoth L'Oréal and over the past couple years has been rolled out to every big chain in town. You've probably seen your favorite Essie shade at Duane Reade or Walmart. The game of hard to get was over. But do we like how easy they are to get now?

Yah, your favorite brand can be found with as much effort as walking out your front door and within minutes can be sitting in your shopping cart beside your tampons, but it inevitably loses some of the cachet that made it so appealing to begin with. Will we turn our backs on our beloved brand? No. But will we hunt down the coveted bottles with the same enthusiasm we once did? No, again.

Like with all seemingly great love affairs, once the chase is over, so is the thrill. Just let us know if you track down a bottle of neon orange Bright Tights circa 2009, that's one treasure we'd still pillage and plunder for.